By Muhammad Amaan
The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) said the doctor-patient ratio in the country is worsening and far below the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) recommendation.
President of NMA, Professor Bala Audu said this in Abuja, during a media conference on the State of the Nation’s Health Sector.
According to him, the doctor-patient ratio is about 1,000 per cent less than what WHO recommends.
He attributed the issue to brain drain of healthcare workers, which is generally known as ‘Japa Syndrome.’
The reason for their departure, he said, includes inadequate equipment, worsening insecurity, poor working conditions, and poor salary structure.
“The doctor-patient ratio is about 1,000 per cent less than what the WHO recommended.
“Recently, there was a medical school that graduated its medical students, and they did a survey and asked the new graduates if they would stay or prefer to leave. Your guess is as good as mine.
“It’s something that is worsening, but it is something that we can mitigate,” he said.
Prof. Audu explained that the brain drain was significantly depleting the manpower for health base in the country.
He added it was leaving a dwindling number of healthcare providers who have decided to remain behind to grapple with challenges of still catering for an increasing number of Nigerians under more difficult and more challenging circumstances.
The consequence of this, he said, was an excess workload upon those who have decided to remain behind.
“This excess workload, which we continue to try to provide quality healthcare at the best available standards, means that each and every healthcare provider in this country has to do a lot.
“They have to do more extra work to ensure that we deliver quality healthcare that is acceptable to all Nigerians.
The NMA President, however, noted that improving health workers’ well-being, providing better working environment, and housing schemes for doctors would reverse the trend.
“The issues that will prevent doctors, and nurses from leaving this country include improving their well-being.
“It’s more than just their take-home package, their take-home package is important but they also need to have health care and educate their children.
“So, if another person is providing a better opportunity, there is a tendency for them to take that option.”
The president also said that it was important to improve the friendliness of the workplace environment.
According to him, there have been situations of attack on health care providers, especially by the patients’ relatives due to unavailability of infrastructure at the facilities.
He, therefore, suggested that the facilities should be improved.
He commended the Federal Government’s strategy to address the shortage of healthcare workers in Nigeria by doubling the enrolment quota for medical, nursing and other health professional schools.
Prof. Audu, however, said that for the federal government to be able to achieve the feat successfully, it also needs to improve on the facilities at the training schools.
He added that these areas of concern were being discussed with the government to ensure that they are improved on so that the nation would continue to produce high-quality health professionals, for Nigeria and the rest of the world.
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate said the enrolment quota in medical, nursing, and other health professional schools had been increased from 28,000 to 64,000 yearly.
At the time, he said that the increase was one of the steps in mitigating the brain drain in the health sector.
